


Before the Fashion Show

by Wei (wei_jiangling)



Category: Kamen Rider OOO
Genre: Ankh being Ankh, Eiji being Eiji, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-30
Updated: 2016-03-30
Packaged: 2018-05-30 01:11:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6401833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wei_jiangling/pseuds/Wei
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For all that Eiji wasn't bad at fighting, he seemed terrible at finding ways to look like it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Before the Fashion Show

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by this week's fandomweekly prompt: "The night before" with a bonus of adding in a prank. I was going to submit it, but then the length got away from me.

"What should I do with my hair?" Eiji stood at the far end of their attic room, using the window as a makeshift mirror, and combing his fingers through his hair with a fixated determination. Ankh was sure he'd never seen Eiji fuss over his appearance this much. That was probably a good thing. For birds, preening was natural. When humans did it, it just looked silly.

"Don't ask me. I'm not going anyway."

"Ah, that's right, she's going to do my hair for me," he muttered, as if he hadn't even heard Ankh's comment. "So I don't need to worry about that. But how should I pose? It's supposed to be like a warrior, right? So..." The pose looked like Gamel somehow, all weight and brawn. Eiji reminding him of an elephant was about as silly as him seeming like a bird.

"You look ridiculous." 

"Eh?" After a moment of thought, he turned to face Ankh this time, seemingly having decided that it was warrior-like to balance on one foot. "Then how's this?"

He rolled his eyes, leaning back against the door frame. All this effort for someone else's fashion contest. "If you're going to spend this much time fussing over something, it should be about how to get those damn purple medals under control." 

At that, he sank back down to stand normally, shaking his head. "Medals, medals, medals... do you ever think about anything besides that?" 

"I'm a Greeed. What do you expect?" 

Eiji didn't have anything to say to that, or he had chosen not to say it out loud. Ankh wasn't sure which. When he spoke, the words were, "Why aren't you going?" He had been listening, after all. 

"Why should I?"

"Because Hina-chan asked you," he replied, as if that was all the reason in the world to do anything. "Besides, she'd want her brother there for her big debut, even if he might not remember it later."

He replied with a scoff. "Now I'm even less interested."

Eiji frowned. "That's not just a body you're borrowing, you know. Whenever he wakes up, he'll probably care about having been there. Anyway, if Hina-chan asked you, it means she wants you to come. So you should still go." When all Ankh did was glare at him, he added, "And if you don't, then I'm not getting you any ice pops for the next week."

Eiji only stooped to low tactics when someone else's happiness was involved. "You can't do that. We had a deal."

"And you eat too many of them, anyway."

Unfortunately, he always picked the low tactics that worked. "Tch."

Eiji said nothing further, dropping the conversation in favor of returning to his makeshift mirror. Ankh was no longer interested in how ridiculous he looked.

Glancing to the ground, he noticed a decoration from yesterday's ballet theme laying just outside the doorway. Chiyoko must have dropped it when she was putting everything away. He didn't pay it much mind, aside from the stray thought that with Eiji being so distracted tonight, it seemed like something he might trip over. If he was feeling charitible, he might have moved it elsewhere, but Ankh was rarely ever charitable, and right at the moment, he felt exactly the opposite. So a quick swipe of his foot shifted the eyesore of a prop directly to the middle of the doorway before he climbed up into the nest of red fabric he used for a bed.

A long moment passed as Ankh stared up at the ceiling, barely watching the idiot's antics out of the corner of his eye, the prior conversation seemingly all but forgotten. Maybe that was why Eiji was so surprised when he finally asked, "Why is he so important to you?"

"Huh?"

"I'm asking why you're always protecting someone you don't even know." He'd never forget the stupid words that came out of Eiji's mouth when they first met, that he would protect both Ankh and the detective because he'd known them since that morning. At the time, that bizarre level of blind dedication seemed like something he could use. Somehow, though, it wasn't working out that way. He had met them both the same day, but for some reason Ankh couldn't understand, it kept feeling like the one who'd been unconscious that whole time was winning.

Eiji looked up at him curiously. "I've answered that already, haven't I?"

A frustrated sound was his only reply to that. Yes, he'd heard enough times about how people were important regardless of who they were, how he'd save anyone he could, and how he'd made a promise to Hina to get her brother back so he would. He had answers to the question he'd asked, much as he couldn't find any logic in them. What was bothering him was the one he hadn't asked, about why Eiji repeatedly seemed to place more importance on people he hardly knew than he did on someone he'd spent most of every day with for months, who he'd been working with that whole time (and who had come to realize, by now, that the appropriate word for that statement was "with," and not "for").

He wasn't going to clarify. It didn't matter, so long as Eiji would still cooperate. Being roped into events like this was a minor inconvenience, and as long as he would still collect medals and finance ice pops, it was fine. He didn't need Eiji to care.

Eventually getting tired of waiting for a real answer, Eiji turned away and looked at the window again. "As for the purple medals... I'm working on it."

Ankh muttered something that might have been "good," and rolled over to face the wall. He had hoped to be able to ignore the idiocy happening on the other side of the room, but somehow it was only more frustrating when he could only hear the shuffling of Eiji's feet as he came up with new ideas that Ankh suspected were increasingly worse. Glancing back, he found what seemed to be a very poor attempt at martial arts. For all that Eiji wasn't bad at fighting, he seemed terrible at finding ways to look like it.

"How long are you going to stand there looking stupid?" The other's shoulders slumped.

"I just want to think of something I can use as a pose. I've never been a fashion model before." 

With the way the idiot was acting, Ankh thought that statement couldn't have been more obvious. Especially when he knew Eiji already had a pose he liked. He rolled over to face the other, crossing his arms in a very lazy imitation of how the other stood when he transformed into OOO. "'Henshin'".

The other looked up at him, obvious confusion shifting to dawning understanding and then a level of excitement only Eiji could show to someone who had just pointed out the obvious. "Oh! That's a great idea! Thank you."

Mission accomplished. Ankh was less interested in thanks than in simply getting Eiji to stop being so frustratingly restless about it. "If you're satisfied, then go to bed."

"Ah... I guess you're right. It won't do any good if I'm tired tomorrow. Oh! But I need to take a bath first!" 

Good, thought the Greeed. He would play along with this stupid fashion show idea tomorrow if he had to, but he was tired of hearing about it tonight. He was more than happy to have the idiot out of the room for a while... though perhaps it had worked to his advantage that the other man still seemed to be thoroughly distracted.

As he disappeared through the doorway, Ankh laid back on his bed, and smiled with satisfaction at the sound of Eiji tripping over a fake ballerina.


End file.
